Page 10 of The Oracle's Journey

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that,” the princess giggled. “Lhoris won’t let them hurt me. I don’t think he’d let them hurt you, either, if you just relax. You should have seen his face while he undid your hair, so tender.”

I hadn’t realized that I’d been quite so mesmerized at the time. No wonder Lobikno was warning me off.

“Handsy-Elf? No, he was probably just glad I was too tired to keep fighting. Though they’ll probably just hog tie me next time.” I could hear the scowl in Ozanna’s voice.

Handsy-Elf? I’d been perfectly grope-free, with great effort on my part, though I could appreciate her point of view.

“It’s no use, Ozanna,” said the younger maid. “I can’t get these knots undone either.”

I’d all but forgotten about the enchanted rope. Thankfully, it would only come undone for the one who tied it. It was far safer for everyone if she remained bound.

Ozanna grumbled something I couldn’t understand before saying, “Thank you for trying, Eve.”

The older woman spoke up, “Emmelina, you said he won’t let them hurt you. Is this because of what he said or … or do you know something?”

“I saw it in the fire,” Emmelina murmured as though lost in thought. “I haven’t had a proper vision like usual.” She released a strained giggle, “But I can see snippets of truth in the flicker of flame. It’s new but feels true.” The latter she said in an odd sing-song voice.

Visions? Perhaps that accounted for her odd behavior.

“Is she truly that reliable?” Ozanna asked.

“Yes,” the older maid replied. “Anything she says has to be seriously considered.”

“Was there anything else?” Ozanna asked after a pause.

“Yes,” the girl answered, “but I can’t tell just yet. One of those things it’s rude for me to know or say.” Her voice tapered off to nearly a whisper, as if she did not want to revisit those thoughts.

“These are special circumstances,” said the older maid, cajoling, “any information might be helpful.”

The girl hummed, sighed, and said, “Those guys out there hate Lhoris. They think he’s bad at being mean because he wants them to be good to us. But they want to do bad things to all of us.” She paused before adding in a small voice, “I wasn’t ready to see what they want to do to us.”

That last part made my heart hurt. The poor girl. I’d seen what my crew could do to females unlucky enough to cross their paths. It was a lesson I’d taken to heart and done everything I could to avoid repeating. It was why I risked everything to sneak the crew off as often as I could to carouse and wench when they had the money, which was against the rules.

“Mother above,” the younger maid lamented in a tremulous voice. “What do we do?”

“Kill them?” the princess asked brightly, which was a little disturbing. “Just the nasty wolfy ones.”

“And how exactly would we pull that off?” Ozanna asked, her tone sharp.

“I’ll think about it,” replied the princess.

Ozanna sighed heavily. “Ok, in summary, Handsy-Elf …”

“Lhoris,” the princess corrected.

“Handsy-Elf doesn’t really have control over his people, and our safety is going to get him killed. The entire crew wants to do bad things to us. So, I should stop rocking the boat and, what, work with him?”

“You should really start by calling him by his name,” the princess said. “He is the only thing between us and ruin. And he has such adorable dimples!”

“Shit,” Ozanna spat. I assumed she wasn’t swearing about my dimples.

“Ms. Black,” scolded the older maid, “language.”

“Fine,” Ozanna snapped, “but I draw the line at anything risky for you. Any of you. I can take a fair amount of punishment.”

By the Elements, I hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

I took a deep breath and sighed in relief. Hopefully, that meant I wouldn’t have to butt heads with the mercenary as much. During our brief scuffle, I’d learned she was much stronger and more skilled than expected. She could force us to kill her. We’d have to continue taking measures to make sure she couldn’t, at least until she proved to be more cooperative as her lady suggested.

---